A Conceptual Model for Oil Port Sustainability Policy Research – A Case of Chinese Ports

Port sustainability has drawn increasing attention under the maritime sustainability management category. Existing port sustainability literature has an emphasis on container ports. Oil ports, being more sensible to environmental and safety incidents than container ports, are being under addressed. Few existing oil port sustainability studies are mostly focusing on particular oil port incident examination, such as oil spillage emergency response ability . Chinese oil ports are required to achieve sustainability, in particularly under the situation of continuous oil port expanding and new oil port building caused by the pursuit of continued economic development and trading convenience. Nowadays, not only overestimated self-cleaning ability has prompted people to dump all kinds of waste to the sea which has caused saviour environmental damage, but also the lack of management on oil ports’ employee human resources and facility maintenance have led oil ports to further safety and social issues. To maintain the balance between profit maximisation and environmental protection, taking human resource and different parties’ interest into consideration has become a serious concern. This study has focused firstly on sustainability theories and divided sustainability into economic, social, and environmental sections. Then, sustainability measurement indicators have been generated from a systematic literature review and policy reading. Lastly, a conceptual model has been developed for the prospective empirical work and future research of forming a Chinese oil port sustainability policy framework.